Friday, April 5, 2013

Devaluing Marriage Is (Co)Habit-Forming

Family Research Council

Test driving a car might be a good idea, but a marriage? Forget it. The National Center for Health Statistics says more couples are living together than ever--and the outlook for society isn't exactly rosy. Believe it or not, almost half of women are choosing cohabitation--not marriage--as their "first union." Casey Copen, the study's lead author, thinks this is the new norm for America, since only 23% of the same age group (15-44) is opting to marry first. Asian Americans were the only population that didn't show a spike in "trial marriages," while 57% more Hispanics, 43% more whites, and 39% more blacks all felt the cohabiting boom. "It's kind of a ubiquitous phenomenon now," Copen tells reporters.

And while more couples are having trouble committing to each other, they don't seem to have the same trouble agreeing to kids. Almost 20% of women are giving birth in the first year of cohabiting. But unfortunately for these children, very few of their parents are sticking together. After 22 months, most partners go their separate ways. Within the first three years, Copen points out, only 40% of these women make the leap to marriage.

Of course, more people probably think they can shack up to avoid shaking up their finances. In 2010, with unemployment at historic highs, about a million new couples moved in together--a shift that analysts called "surprisingly large." And surprisingly devastating, based on FRC's research. Although they may resemble spouses, cohabitors don't behave like them. Studies from our Marriage and Religious Research Institute (MARRI) show that these adults are less engaged in the economy because they don't marry. Cohabitation also crowds out marriage. When more people live together over time than marry, the effects on the nation and its economy are disastrous, because of all the attendant goods of marriage that are lost.

These unstable relationships are also incredibly unhealthy for kids. FRC's good friend Chuck Donovan wrote an extensive piece when he was with The Heritage Foundation on the rash of cohabitors. In it, he highlighted a study by Rutgers's David Popenoe, which found that nearly half of Britain's cohabiting couples with kids broke up in the first five years (compared to one in 12 married couples with children). Research is clear: these couples are more likely to be unhappy, cheat, feel depressed, experience abuse, and divorce (if they ever do get married).

Unfortunately, if you want to fight the cohabiting explosion, don't expect help from the federal government. Instead of reversing the trend, President Obama is rewarding it! Under the latest tax deal, married couples are actually punished with higher premiums. For five years, marriage has taken a beating under this administration, which seems to have set its sights on penalizing, deemphasizing, and redefining the institution.

Of course, one of the biggest criticisms we hear from the same-sex "marriage" movement is that heterosexuals haven't done enough to strengthen their own unions. North Carolina leaders are doing their best to change that. The same state that voted to protect marriage last May is now moving to strengthen the ones they already have! A group of three state senators are pushing a bill called the Healthy Marriage Act that would require counseling, classes in communication skills and conflict resolution, and a longer waiting period for couples filing for divorce. Prompted in part by Mike McManus and our friends at the North Carolina Family Policy Council, the measure would ensure that couples have every resource at their disposal to save their marriages.

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MCRW COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS

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*** COMMUNITY FOOD CLOSETS – A collection box is available at all MCRW monthly membership for donations of non-perishable boxed/canned food items to be forwarded to the Madison Emergency Shelter Association (MESA).

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Republican Philosophy

"Our Founders saw democracy as a variant of tyranny. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said, “…that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.” John Adams said, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Alexander Hamilton said, “We are now forming a Republican form of government. Real Liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship.”

"By the way, the word democracy appears in none of our founding documents.

"The Founders of our nation recognized that we need government, but because the essence of government is force, and force is evil, government should be as small as possible. The Founders intended for us to have a limited republican form of government where human rights precede government and there is rule of law. Citizens, as well as government officials, are accountable to the same laws. Government intervenes in civil society only to protect its citizens against force and fraud, but does not intervene in the cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange."

Walter Williams

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"The Republican party is a party of progress, and of liberty toward its opponents. It encourages the poor to strive to better their children, to enable them to compete successfully with their more fortunate associates, and, in fine, it secures an entire equality before the law of every citizen, no matter what his race, nationality, or previous condition. It tolerates no privileged class. Every one has the opportunity to make himself all he is capable of… The Republican party is a party of principles; the same principles prevailing wherever it has a foothold."

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), September 28, 1880Delivered by the retired president before a Republican gathering in Warren, Ohio

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We Believe . . .

That the free enterprise system is the most productive supplier of human needs and economic justice

That all individuals are entitled to equal rights, justice, and opportunities and should assume their responsibilities as citizens in a free society

That fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraints must be exercised at all levels of government

That the Federal Government must preserve individual liberty by observing constitutional limitations

That peace is best preserved through a strong national defense

That faith in God, as recognized by our Founding Fathers, is essential to the moral fiber of the Nation